Federal employees reportedly received notice Aug. 2 in a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services advising them to avoid the office at the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, located at 7th and Mission streets in San Francisco, and to work from home when possible due to drug use and rising crime in the area.
The issue was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
“There are 50 people, at least, injecting and smoking fentanyl in front of the federal building,” Darren Mark Stallcup, longtime San Francisco resident, fentanyl recovery advocate, and founder of the World Peace Movement—established to bring people of all backgrounds together to solve complex problems—told The Epoch Times. “It’s horrible; it’s a humanitarian crisis.”
A video posted by Mr. Stallcup Aug. 14 on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, shows dozens of individuals simultaneously using the synthetic opioid steps from the federal workplace in what he describes as a dystopian setting.
Employed near the 18-story tower—which was built in 2007—he has routinely walked by the area for the last nine years and says the last three have been a steep descent into depravity.
“My family has deep roots in San Francisco, and I’ve personally seen the city go from being the cultural capital of the world, to the technological capital of the world, to now the fentanyl capital of the world,” Mr. Stallcup said.
He described mornings near the federal building as a chaotic scene, with the white coroner’s van picking up dead bodies while fentanyl dealers haggle over territory.
Encampments around the building include tents, make-shift pallet houses, and structures built with strollers and tarps situated on sidewalks, in alleys, and in a parking lot behind the building.
A child day care center located across from the federal building is severely impacted by crime, according to residents, as prevalent drug use is visible to children from the adjacent playground.
In December 2022, a 10-month-old child overdosed while playing on a separate playground in the city due to fentanyl exposure. He was revived, but the incident raised awareness about the dangers of the synthetic opioid littered in public spaces.
Fentanyl was first identified as a significant problem in the city in 2019, and the number of addicted users, homeless, and encampments has grown considerably since, according to residents. More than 400 overdose deaths were attributed to fentanyl in the first half of this year, according to the City of San Francisco, equating to more than two deaths per day.
“It went from being a couple of people camped out in front of the federal building to Honduran cartels setting up shop dealing fentanyl,” Mr. Stallcup said in an interview. “I can’t tell you how many ambulances I’ve seen there, or how many people died there.”
Calls for overdose emergencies are a routine occurrence, with paramedics testifying to the Legislature this year that on multiple occasions patients in the city were brought to life with anti-opioid medications like Narcan only to be back on the street using within hours. Some had to be revived more than once in a 24-hour period, they said.
Videos also circulating on social media from San Francisco this summer show graphic scenes of addiction, including a pregnant woman pictured with gashes and open wounds giving birth on the sidewalk while clutching a fentanyl pipe.
Residents say they fear not only for their community, but for the nation, with several telling The Epoch Times they wonder why federal agents are not securing the premises and question the safety of their own neighborhoods when government buildings are overrun with crime.
With federal employees now told to teleconference, the guidance adds to the growing office space vacancy in the city, with many employees resisting a return to the office and some citing fear for their safety as a reason to avoid public transportation and downtown areas.
The crisis is not isolated to the corner of 7th and Mission, with the Tenderloin District experiencing unprecedented levels of homelessness, and encampments located near public schools and libraries are threatening public safety, according to residents.
Dozens of tents line the street, with residents describing the situation as dangerous and disheartening for young children forced to walk by the open-air drug use and criminal activity on the way to and from school. The 2023–24 school year begins Aug. 16.
Representatives at the federal level are taking notice, with calls for more to be done to secure government properties.
“Crime in San Francisco is so out of control that employees at the Federal Building are being told to stay home,” Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) wrote on X Aug. 14. “In recent months, San Francisco’s decline has reached a point of total collapse.”
Many companies, including Nordstrom, Whole Foods, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Anthropologie already left the area amid unprecedented theft and property crime in what some describe as a retail apocalypse.
“If California offers a preview of where our country is headed, San Francisco offers an even starker warning,” Mr. Kiley said on X. “This is where failed policies, radical politics, and public corruption are in their most advanced stage—and where residents are most rapidly fleeing.”
State responses to the issue include the deployment of the National Guard, announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom in April, and California Highway Patrol officers working with them—with the number of officers doubled in June to expand efforts.
Residents tell The Epoch Times that if the National Guard is in the city, they are unidentifiable and not wearing uniforms, though highway patrol officers have been observed making targeted arrests in high crime areas, they said.
The proximity to what was formerly a world-class shopping destination and retail establishments is contributing to the problem, as drug addicts take advantage of relaxed enforcement of shoplifting crimes and use theft to fund their addiction, according to experts.
With a Westfield Mall only blocks from the most active open-air drug markets, thieves openly trade stolen goods for money or drugs in broad daylight on street corners, according to residents.
“It’s having a horrible effect on local businesses and on overall community morale,” Mr. Stallcup said. “This is fentanyl genocide, and we’re one bad batch away from a mass overdose event. This is chemical warfare on the American people in the form of fentanyl.”
Fentanyl is highly addictive, odorless, tasteless, and 50 times more powerful than heroin, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Its toxicity and the insidious nature by which dealers target unsuspecting victims by contaminating products—including prescription pills, party drugs, and vape cartridges—with the drug are leading to the surge in deaths, according to experts.
Residents describe the levels of crime and drug abuse as a situation that is beyond belief.
“This is worse than anything I’ve seen in traveling in the third world. It's a fourth world,” Mr. Stallcup said. “We have to hold on to hope. The most important thing is to hold on to hope and spread peace and love.”
Nancy Pelosi’s office and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.